Waterfall at Stone Fort, TN
Rod Shean
digitally enhanced photograph

The Centennial Art Center show of three Nashville area photographers - Joe Fizer, Randy Muir and Rod Shean - ends June 27 at Metro Parks' Centennial Art Center gallery. Visit the Centennial Art Center page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...). They have just recently joined Art Museum Touring.com.

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

The Knoxville Museum of Art new photography exhibition, Women of a New Tribe features 14 local women photographed by artist Jerry Taliaferro in the Community Gallery now through July 6. Visit the KMA page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...).

Jerry Taliaferro
Two Links of a Long Chain, 2004,
photo of Juanita and Kimberly Cannon

Women of a New Tribe is a striking photography exhibition honoring African-American women, their strength, beauty, and their role in American culture. In 2004, sixteen women from Knoxville and the surrounding area were selected from community nominations and photographed by artist Jerry Taliaferro to join the Women of a New Tribe. This exhibition organized by the Literacy Imperative features fourteen of these portraits. The Literacy Imperative is not just a place for books, but also includes visual literacy. In addition to promoting literacy for underserved communities, they also promote seeing the world from different perspectives so that all may appreciate it in a new way.

Check out the Events page (Link...) to see the dates and times for KMA's upcoming "Paint Out".

Support your local galleries and museums! They are economic engines for your community.

Sherrie

Here's a Flash gallery of some wildflowers seen along Parson's Branch Rd. yesterday. All kinds of wildflowers are starting to bloom, and there are plenty to see if you look closely.

(Click for bigger)

Pileated Woodpecker, a male, I believe. Taken at Lake Ashby Park in Volusia Co. FL, which is an excellent county run park that we discovered by accident. This was the first time I've been able to get photos of one of these fellows. He came right up near us on the trail, making a lot of noise like maybe he was being all territorial and stuff.

Here's a gallery of some of our Florida vacation photos that may display on some browsers.

The Bald Eagle was back at the same spot at the Merritt Island NWR Wednesday. I managed to get a little closer for some better shots. See more from the series after the jump...

We were driving down the road towards the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge this morning and spotted this heron coming out of the canal along the side of the road. It had caught something, and was struggling to get airborne.

The heron flew out right in front of us, going down the road in the same direction. We had to slow down to keep from running over it. At first we thought it had a snake, but then we could see it looked like an eel. We followed the heron down the road for a minute, until it flew back over into the brush along the side of the road. We pulled over to watch. Click read more to see what happened...

New Photography from the KMA Collection

Christine Patterson
(American, born 1961)
Swinging Bridge, 1994

Hand-colored photograph on paper
12 5/8 x 18 7/8 inches

Most of the photographs in this selection were acquired in the last five years largely through the efforts of the museum’s Collectors Circle and other donors. The works on view illustrate some of the ways in which artists have transformed photography into a vital contemporary art medium marked by innovation and experimentation. Photography has often been referred to as ‘painting with light.’

Visit the Knoxville Museum of Art page on Art Museum Touring.com (Link...)to see what is currently on exhibit at the KMA.

Support your local museums and galleries! They are economic engines for the community!

Sherrie

We debated whether to go see the 2:28AM scheduled launch of STS-123. We went back and forth all day. It's an hour's drive down and back. It's scheduled for 2:28 AM. It might get scrubbed because of cloud cover.

Around 9:30 PM we decided we're here, the latest NASA reports said weather conditions were 90% go for launch and the main engines were fueled, so we figured why not. We loaded up and headed down to Titusville.

Some photos after the jump...

My "pet" Kingfisher at Maxey's, last week. He/she (actually, there is a pair -- one was hunting in the other cove) seemed less skittish than usual. Click read more for larger view and some other pics...

We were updating a wall with some new art and photos, and needed something to go with a theme. I came up with this:

Read more for a larger view, the original, and notes on how this effect was done in Photoshop.

We went up to the Look Rock parking area on the Foothills Parkway for the Perseid meteor show last night. We got there about 12:30 AM and stayed until about 3:30 AM.

I was surprised by the number of people and all the traffic. There were people at just about every pullout, and some of the lower ones were almost full. We saw several people with cameras.

The difference in the number of stars you can see in the darker skies is amazing as compared to the suburbs. The Milky Way is so bright you almost don't need a flashlight. There were so many stars and they were so bright, the Mrs. (our star navigator for the mission) had trouble orienting the various constellations at first. It helped when we finally got out a compass and figured out that North was the opposite direction from what I thought. (I believe I have mentioned before that I am directionally challenged.)

The meteor activity seemed to peak between 1:30 AM and a little after 2 AM. We saw dozens of meteors -- I'd guess around 50, but we weren't counting. Some were quite spectacular. I saw at least one double and a couple of rapid fire bursts of two or three.

I took about two hundred continuous 30 second exposures (actually more, but I deleted a bunch of non-productive shots along the way) using a cable release with a locking trigger and continuous shutter mode, and managed to capture exactly four meteors that I can actually see in the images. There were several more that I was sure I had captured, but I guess they just weren't bright enough. Click read more for the two best, which aren't all that great, and some notes on what I learned.

Is anyone using Adobe Lightroom 1.1? What do you think? I have the 30-day free trial installed, and I'm really liking it. If, like me, you tried one of the early beta versions and weren't convinced, you might want to take another look.

Lightroom combines the workflow features of Bridge, the developing/adjustment features of Adobe Camera Raw (both much improved in Photoshop CS3) and the nicer cataloging/organizing features of the consumer oriented Photoshop Elements 5 Organizer into a single application that does it all and does it faster and better in most cases.

Read more...

Click image for larger view...

Black Capped Night Heron, Maxey's Park

Working with Miksang

If you would like to see selected examples of Miksang and links to Miksang sites, please go here.

June 12, 2007

Dear Carole Ann,

A traditional art form has been greatly facilitated by the advent of the digital camera. The art of Miksang was begun as a meditational tool by Shambhala Buddhists, but it has implications for painters and other creative people. The idea is to find joy and awareness by attending to the minor and seemingly insignificant--the colours, patterns and textures that exist in the close-up world. Miksang is a Tibetan word that means "good eye." Shambhalas think widespread use might lead to more compassionate and enlightened societies.

Artists have been going in this direction for centuries. Leonardo recommended seeing beauty and finding motifs in the texture of walls. You might remember several years ago I demonstrated the use of a special camera set-up, and encouraged the practice of close-up looking and capturing. We've included links to this and examples of Miksang art in the current clickback. See URL below.

These days Buddhist instructors in several countries are handing digital cameras to kids. Children seem to take to it faster than adults and, according to some, get better results. Instructors need to be certified by the Toronto-based "Miksang Society for Contemplative Photography." Part of the Miksang philosophy is that subjects must be found and collected "as is" and not moved or adjusted to improve composition. Subjects can be man-made or from the natural world.

What value does Miksang have for creative folks? Obviously, Miksang makes for pause, reflection and quiet centering. By increasing awareness, one builds a feeling of wonder and kinship with the overlooked. But its real value is in seeing design and the subtlety of colour. To the discriminating eye the macro world is a minor symphony. Looking through a viewfinder and making decisions hone the ability to find the larger compositions. It's all about the acquired skills of looking and seeing. Buddhist or not, this art can be performed at any time and any place.

Digital photography has been a bit of a shock for the formerly film-based who thought of cost every time they pressed the shutter. Digitals are essentially "free" until you do something with them. The act of capture becomes like a prayer--free for the asking. Miksang praises the world of small.

Best regards,

Robert

PS: "To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour." (William Blake)

Esoterica: A valuable exercise is to select a small area such as the corner of a garden, a children's playground or even a traffic island. Any inconsequential area will do. Most digital cameras have an icon (usually a flower) that sets the camera for fast close-up focus. Take CU's of everything you can find--from dew drops to bottle tops. Assess the design of each shot and frame accordingly. You can put hundreds into the camera in half an hour. Before you edit out your "failures," load them into your computer and give yourself a slide show. Don't be judgmental. Let it all dissolve by at one or two second intervals. You will be taken away, Zen-like, to a world of amazing detail, colour and design.

Cades Cove, a couple of weeks ago

Cucoloris - A filter that casts patterned light. They're apparently often just pieces of cardboard or other materials with patterns removed. Also called a cookie by people in the movie biz. I couldn't find any pictures of a cucoloris, but here's a photographer's example of using a potted palm tree as an improvised cucoloris to make a scene more interesting.

Via Roger Ebert's glossary of movie terms. And note that he spells it differently.

Previous WOTD - Ceteris paribus

Photo: Christopher Morris.

Perfect. Dead. Solid. Perfect. Robert Caro couldn't sum this picture up in four volumes.

I think it should be titled Service Trois Pièces.

Disclaimer! ***Photography nerd post***

I wish I had a dollar for every digital camera introduced to the marketplace in the last 5 years. I'm not sure how much cash i'd have, but it might be enough to buy one of these puppies:

Leica M8 digital rangefinder camera

Leica knows a little bit about camera making. Oskar Barnack, who worked for Leica (then Leitz) pretty much invented the 35mm camera in 1913. Here is a timeline on Leica's impact on photography over the years:

(from the old Leica camera website) New website is:

Link...

1913 Prototype of the "Ur-Leica" by Oskar Barnack
1925 Leica I with built in lens; commencement of
seriel manufacture
1930 Leica I: first Leica camera with threaded lens
flange; Hektor 50mm f2.5: first high speed lens
1932 Leica II with built in coupled rangefinder.
1935 Leica IIIa with 1/1000th of a second shutter speed.
1936 Xenon 50mm f/1.5: first very high-speed lens
1950 Leica IIIf with variable flash synchronisation
1954 Leica M3 with quick-exchange bayonet mount, bright-line
frame viewfinder for 50, 90 and 135mm focal lengths
1958 LEICA M2 with bright-line frame viewfinder for 35, 50 and
90mm focal lengths
1965 Leicaflex: First Leica SLR camera.
1966 Noctilux 50mm f1.2; first lens with serially produced
aspherical lens
1968 Leicaflex SL: first SLR camera with selective light
metering through the lens
1971 Leica M5 with built-in exposure meter.
1975 Apo-Telyt-R 180mm f/3.4: first apochromatically corrected lens
1976 LEICA R3: first camera with adjustable selective/integral
exposure metering
1984 LEICA M6 with built-in exposure meter through the lens
1988 LEICA R6: SLR camera with mechanically controlled shutter
2005 Leica Digital Module-R: First and so far only digital
attachment for a film based 35mm camera
2006 Leica M8: Digital rangefinder camera.

From dpreview.com:

With a resolution of over 10 million pixels, the KAF-10500 continues Kodak’s legacy of offering high performance imaging devices that leverage Kodak’s Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) technology for low noise, high sensitivity, and wide dynamic range. Utilizing a 6.8µm pixel architecture, the sensor uses an optimized microlens configuration to maximize center to corner uniformity for improved image quality, particularly important for the broad incident light angles associated with M series lenses. The sensor also includes anti-blooming protection to prevent against image corruption during high light level conditions.

Anyway, while most every other camera maker rushing products to market as fast as they can, only to come out with a slightly better product months later, Leica is a bit more thorough. Leica's customers have been begging for this camera for at least two years now, and it will finally be here in November. That's not to say that Canon, Nikon and all the rest are not as high quality or good; they're providing products to a wanting public. Canon, Nikon and company mass market many many consumer grade products and offer just a few "professional" grade products.

Leica Camera, on the other hand has only really offered a select few products, the M (rangefinder), the R (Reflex) and a couple of niche compact cameras. They've had a hard time surviving, as there are only so many people willing to shell out $2-3K USD for a really, really well made hobbyist camera. They've partnered with Panasonic and now offer a few less expensive digital products to try and raise their profile in the marketplace.

Photokina in Cologne, Germany is coming up, September 26 - October 1st, and all of the camera makers will be showing off their new wares. Leica will of course be there with a booth, and the new models so that the industry can take a look.

Best of luck looking forward Leica!

Dinner time for Black Crowned Night Heron

A diary over at Daily Kos has some very interesting photographs. Everybody should go and see them. Very telling. The two that really make me nauseous:

Lets trample our flag. What idiot thought this was a good photograph, and why didn't these folks perhaps realize that this was not a good idea?

Nikon has announced availability of the new D80 DSLR. This sounds like a killer camera, especially for the money. Put one of their new 18-200 VR lenses on it and you probably have the ultimate, all-around serious amateur DSLR kit for under $2000 ($1750, if you can find them).

Here is a hands-on preview of the D80, and and a thorough review of the 18-200 lens. Both the camera and the lens will likely be popular and hard to get for the next several months.

I'm all out of birds for a variety of reasons. Here's a cute squirrel instead:

BONUS: East Tennessee Dog Sledding:

(Click images for larger view.)

Hope I'm not stealing our gracious host's thunder, but I have a trove of bird images from my recent vacation.

Brown pelicans, taking flight.

(Photo taken at the mouth of Tom's Cove, Assateague Is., VA on the 4th of July.)

Ever taken a picture and wonder why what you see on the screen doesn't match (a) what your eye saw, or (b) what comes out on the printer, or doesn't match (c) from monitor to monitor?

Answer: Different devices represent color differently. Different monitor manufacturers are either warmer or cooler from model to model... LCDs will look different from CRTs... color saturation will differ, as will the palette from which colors are chosen.

To complicate matters, when you take a picture from the monitor to a print-out, an entirely different system of mixing colors is in use. To wit: printed media use a method for mixing colors called CMYK, meaning "cyan/magenta/yellow/black." What you see on the screen (or on the back of your digital camera) is represented by mixing RGB (red/green/blue) in differing shades, tones, and pixels.

So what's the answer? (read more if you care to)

This is totally awesome. It's a U.T. digital archive of Dutch Roth photography of the early days of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and more.

(Thanks to fortsanders.net for bringing this to our attention.)

Our old blog pal "Ironman" GTTim has headed out to San Francisco to compete in the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon.

He's photo/blogging his trip at his new blog, Better Inhale Deeply. Check it out, and check back daily for updates.

You see the damnedest things sometimes.

My wife got tipped to this one... there's 3 red fox pups living in a culvert right in Nashville proper.

By request, I have resurrected the photos and travelogue from our trip out West last year:

Link...

Enjoy!

(Man, reviewing all this in the process of re-hosting it makes me want to load up and go back out on the road...)